AP Essay: My Cyprus, changed forever

[dipsydoodle]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Nicosia, Cyprus, 1973: Riding with my parents and two elder siblings in a taxi, the kind of large Mercedes favored in the Middle East. The driver gestures to an alley where you can just make out people behind barricades.

"Turks," he spits derisively.

We keep quiet. We hadn't been brought up to think of any people that way. Later that day, my father tells us that things don't bode well for Cyprus, a place we had been coming to for three summer holidays and that he visited frequently on business over the years.

A year later, war broke out.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CYPRUS_THE_ISLAND_REMEMBERED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-03-07-05-30

[bemildred]

1. Bitter Lemons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Lemons

[mainer]

2. Actually, the problem was the Greeks

From what I understand, Cyprus's banks went under because they were carrying bad debts of the Greeks. The EU allowed Greece to default -- taking down the Cypriot banks.